Mount Dora Citrus Cooperative Breaks Even For Year

MOUNT DORA — The Mount Dora Citrus Growers Cooperative broke even in 1986 despite packing a record amount of citrus during the 1985-86 season.

''We did not make any money and this, I know, is very un-American,'' general manager Robert Blair told stockholders during the cooperative's 50th annual meeting Wednesday.

The cooperative packed about 980,000 boxes last season compared to about 700,000 boxes in 1984-85, when it started shipping fruit from South Florida to keep its employees working and protect its members' investments in the cooperative.

Mount Dora Growers started shipping fruit from South Florida after killer freezes in late 1983 and early 1985 devastated the county's citrus industry. As in 1984-85, Blair said, the cooperative packed little locally-produced citrus.

Despite the rosy packing figures last season, the cooperative sold the packed fruit for less than it paid for it from southern groves, Blair said. Summerlike temperatures in late 1985 caused a large amount of citrus to decay, compounding the problem of market prices, he said.

To make a profit this season, the cooperative will continue packing citrus it buys from southern groves and increase its grove maintenance activities, Blair said.

Mount Dora Growers has an adequate amount of working capital to operate this season, according to Pieter Dearolf, the cooperative's accountant. The cooperative reported $1.7 million in assets and $1.7 million in liabilities as of July 1986.

The cooperative has 77 members, down from 85 members last season. The packing plant on South Highlands Street is one of nine plants still operating in Lake County. Before the 1983 freeze, 26 packing plants operated in the county.

Blair estimated about 60 percent of the cooperative's members have replanted or plan to replant in early 1987.

Jim Simpson, manager of Simpson Fruit Co. in Mount Dora, said he has replanted about 300 acres of the company's 500 acres of dead grove. The third- generation grower said he has replanted about 20,000 trees in the past two years. He said he intends to have 80 percent of the groves replanted by the fall of 1988.

Some growers have encountered problems obtaining financing to replant because local banks aren't interested in making equity loans based on the value of grove property, Simpson said. Banks prefer that loan customers show immediate cash flow, an impossibility for many growers because replanted groves will not start generating profits for three to seven years.

Local banks should get together and consider an equity financing program to assist growers, he said.

Simpson said he is taking the gamble to replant because he believes the soil in Lake County produces the highest yield and quality of fruit.

He said he hopes it won't be ''a financial form of Russian roulette.''